
Java Swing comes with "pluggable look-and-feel technology", which essentially boils down to the fact that interfaces can be "skinned" (although this is simplifying a tad) and is therefore, extremely flexible. By default, Java ships with a cross-platform look-and-feel (LAF), which means your apps can look consistent across all platforms, or LAFs that mimic the look of a specific platform, say Windows, for example. However, one of the chief complaints of Java desktop applications is its "look". It basically stems from two issues:
C is efficient, only because you don't:
- memory leaks
- no unicode, you're still using ASCII
- no bounds checking
- no string library, char[] still used by many programmers.
C is faster, only because it doesn't do ANYTHING a modern language should be doing.
Learn D.